Pessimistic [Completed]

27

The news was interrupted with an emergency broadcast.

Pico sat up and put his hands back in his now cold sleeves.

The reporter had a worried look on his face as he spoke.

"An unidentified humanoid 'creature' of sorts has been spotted roaming around the city. There have been no attacks of any sort yet, but as an extra precaution we suggest that all civilians stay indoors until it is detained. If you see a strange dark creature like this, steer clear and get somewhere safe."

An image appeared on the screen. It had neon pink eyes and teeth, and looked like-

"Keith!" Pico blurted. "I need to find him." He stood up.

"Pico, it's not safe, you should stay here."

"No, I have to do it. He can't spread it to me, I already have it. And who knows what they'd do to him if they detained him."

Nene tried to think of something to snap him out of it, but he was already up and heading for the door.

"At least take something with you, I don't need you getting hurt." She ran into the kitchen and went into the drawer under the oven. Pico didn't even notice it was there until now.

She shoved pans out of the way, reaching to the back of the metal drawer.

After a minute or two, she pulled out one of his guns and shoved the drawer back in.

"So that's where they were."

"Yeah, I hid them when Keith... ended things, for safety reasons."

"Oh. I guess that was a good idea." He took the gun from her hand.

"I have one other thing though, for when you do get him." She went into another drawer, digging around, before pulling out some knotted shoelaces.

"Are those-"

"Yes. I don't know why I kept them. I really shouldn't have. But look at your own fingers, they're pointy and a weapon on their own. His are as well, and I doubt he'll come quietly. So just tie a knot, right?"

"Right. Thanks. I've got to go find him now." He stood in the open doorway.

"Alright. Stay safe, dont go full if you can help it, and try not to get too hurt."

"Yep." He closed the door behind him.

He shoved the shoelaces in his pocket, he didn't want to look at them. They were for tactical purposes, and making him mentally ill was not tactical.

He realized he had no idea where to go. Left, right, forward, up?

He'd just jog around and look for any signs.

He started forward fast, looking down every alleyway he passed. He never really put much thought to how many alleyways there were.

Every once couple minutes he'd hear some animal noise, like a dog growling, but more feral. There were a lot of strays around, so it wasn't completely odd. What was odd was when it stopped.

He didn't notice at first, but once he did, the silence was loud.

The sun shone directly over him, but did little to warm up the cold October air. Halloween was in a couple of days.

Which made it odd that there were two kids in costumes running across the street, yelling.

They ran up and hid behind him, panting.

"Help us Mister, a monster was chasing us!" The kid in the pumpkin costume spoke, hugging his leg.

"Pump, don't be a scaredy cat, it's a spooky month!" The skeleton kid did a weird little dance.

"Was it black?" Pico internally cringed at how racist that sounded. "Pink face?"

The pumpkin kid, 'Pump', nodded. The kid looked traumatized.

"Alright. You see that coffee shop over there?" Pico pointed to a nearby Dunkin Donuts. "I want you two to go hide in there, this might get messy."

The two kids ran into to the coffee shop and stared out the window.

Pico started forward again, and the monster ran out into the middle of the street. It stared at Pico with its unblinking eyes and pink smile.

It growled. It was that same growl Pico had been hearing earlier. Had it been following him?

It stood still. It wasn't breathing. It didn't shake like Keith did when his heart was pounding to hard. It didn't move at all.

But then it did.

It darted across the street at inhuman speeds and pushed Pico onto the asphalt.

It was on top of him, its claws digging into his arms as it continued to growl loudly.

"I'm going to fix you." Pico muttered breathily. "That's a promise."

It's head shot forward as it bit down on his shoulder.

He grunted in pain.  Then he grabbed it and rolled over. It shrieked as its head hit the road. Pico pinned its arms down with its knees.

He pulled the laces out of his pocket.

This is it. Tie a knot.

Just one, tight knot.

He grabbed its hands and wrapped it around fast before he could think twice.

He tied a quick knot, before tying it again, and for good measure, a third time.

He noticed a mix of pink and red blood ran down his arm from where it bit him.

There was a decent sized chunk of flesh missing, and he could see bone.

The missing chunk of flesh wasn't technically missing, it was a few feet away on the street along with a bit of ripped fabric from his shirts.

It had been a while since he didn't want to be hurt. A normal reaction to getting his shoulder ripped open was probably a good thing.

He carefully got up, making sure not to let Keith go.

It tried to attack him again, but Pico grabbed its waist from behind. It snarled at him, trying to get another bite out of him.

Now he just had to get the two of them home.

After this, just 3 or so more chaptersss
I'm really excited becasue I've been working on this for months, so I'll be able to go back and fix earlier chapters finally!